Mark Hohmeister: When does sound become noise?

4:49 PM,
Nov. 1, 2013

Mark Hohmeister

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There's an old cartoon I remember that featured two panels. In the first, there is a waterfall, with a string of contented Z's coming from a tent pitched nearby; in the second, a man clutches a pillow to his ears to mute the maddening sound of a faucet going drip-drip-drip.

That pretty much sums up the conversation about the proposed city noise ordinance: One man's noise is another's music.

A few years ago, writing about the barred owls that sometimes hoot and whoop the night away behind my house, I went off on a tangent wondering why that sound feels so soothing while a late-night party behind our ...